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The library book on solar panels said one panel takes 8 years to pay back its own power, and I can't stop thinking about it
I picked up a book at the Columbus library branch on High Street about home solar because my neighbor put panels up in April, and page 47 had a chart on energy payback that I had never even heard of. It measures how long a panel has to run just to make the power that was used to build and ship it, and the number for older panels was years, not months like I assumed. Does anyone here know if the newer panels are getting faster on this, or is it still a big gap people just don't talk about?
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wood.andrew19d ago
Huh, I think the 8 year thing might be mixing up two different numbers. Energy payback (the power to make and ship the panel) is way shorter than that, most newer panels hit it in 1 to 2 years, and some studies say under a year in sunny spots. The 8 year figure you saw was probably talking about money payback, like how long until your electric bill savings cover what you paid for the whole system. Those are totally different charts and the book might not have made that clear on page 47.
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